Don’t Rake Your Leaves in Minnesota This Fall!

Looking for an excuse to get out of some yard work? A study out this year says you probably shouldn't rake your leaves anyway this fall.

My wife and I don't really have too many trees in our yard-- okay, we have one tree-- so raking the leaves each fall isn't too big a challenge. But there's a study out that says it's better all around if you don't rake your leaves.

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My mom's house (the house I grew up in) back in Wisconsin has a TON of trees, and raking them each fall was always a big chore. Which means mom would probably like these results that say it's actually better for the environment if we DON'T rake our leaves each year.

According to this USA Today story, there are a few big reasons to keep that rake in your garage. First, not raking your leaves could save you money by acting as natural fertilizers that can help your lawn grow, the story says. Who doesn't want a greener, more full lawn?

Secondly, not raking those leaves also helps out natural wildlife. Both Butterflies and songbirds depend on leaf litter that often contains many insects, the story noted.

And finally, leaves and yard waste take up a lot of space in our landfills. A lot! The story says that a whopping 20 to 30 percent of waste in landfills today is actually biodegradable waste like leaves and grass clippings, so leaving them on your lawn is much better for our environment too.

We have a wooded area at the back of our property where we haul our raked leaves each fall, so that third reason doesn't really work for us. But I'm all about those other two reasons. Although, seeing as we bought a new lawnmower earlier this year that comes with a mulch attachment, I probably wasn't going to rake our leaves anyway.

So if you're looking to get out of raking this year, have whoever has sent you out to rake those leaves read this post instead. Then go have another pumpkin spice latte secure in the knowledge that your not raking the lawn is actually doing some good!